There are several industrial applications that require both moderate purity oxygen, such as for use in furnace operations or chemical oxidation processes, and moderate purity nitrogen, such as for use in inerting, drying or blanketing. Conventional cryogenic air separation systems, such as those employing cryogenic rectification columns to produce the products, have not proved to be economically attractive for the production of this product slate.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a cryogenic air separation system which can economically produce both moderate purity oxygen and moderate purity nitrogen.